THE MEDIA BUSINESS

THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Deal Calls for an HBO Film To Be Shown Also on NBC

By BILL CARTER

Published: October 6, 1992

In a deal that signals further cooperation between broadcast and cable networks, a new movie produced by HBO will run on that cable network in January and on NBC only a few months later.

The two networks announced the deal yesterday and said it could be the first of a series of movies that could be put on television on each of the two networks within the same television season. Charles Schreger, the vice president of HBO Enterprises, said he could envision as many as five HBO movies playing subsequently on NBC each year.

The film the networks have agreed to share is called "Blindside." HBO has produced the movie and has scheduled it for mid-January. Under the agreement, NBC can broadcast the film as early as April. Seeking to Cut Costs

Each network said the impetus for the alliance was cutting programming costs. "The motivation is financial," Mr. Schreger said, "the economics work for both of us." NBC executives said that the high costs of production were compelling new business partnerships.

HBO usually pays between $5 million and $7 million to produce an original movie and charges subscribers a special monthly fee.

HBO sought a broadcast partner for "Blindside" as a way to defray some of the production costs. One of the markets it has relied upon for financing the 12 movies it produces each year -- syndication to individual broadcast television stations -- has all but dried up in recent years since the Fox network began supplying programming to stations that formerly purchased a lot of movies. Pointing to the Stars

Mr. Schreger said he believed the networks would be interested in a suspense thriller like "Blindside" because it had stars more associated with theatrical films than television: Rutger Hauer, Rebecca De Mornay and Ron Silver.

"HBO is only in 17 million homes. That leaves another 75 million homes that haven't yet had access to the movie," Mr. Schreger said.

NBC expressed immediate interest in the concept, Mr. Schreger said, because licensing the film from HBO would cost far less than producing a new movie on its own. Network movies generally cost between $2.5 and $3 million to produce. Neither HBO nor NBC would specify what NBC has agreed to pay for the film. Previous Crossovers

Cable movies have moved to network television before. One film on Showtime moved to CBS, and a movie made by the Lifetime channel, which is partly owned by ABC, had a second run on that network.

But both NBC and HBO executives said this deal could be the start of a continuing relationship if "Blindside" proved successful.

"We have already exchanged further material with them," Mr. Schreger said. "I don't believe we would ever see all 12 movies that HBO makes each year move to NBC. But I could certainly see doing a deal with them for three, four or five movies a year."